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CHILDREN & YOUTH

Child & Youth

radio training

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RX Radio

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Saturday 20 May 2017 marks the first time RX Radio went LIVE. We had a star-studded line up of guests who were interviewed and our Child/Young Reporters conquered the airwaves.

This year RX Radio is celebrating its 1st birthday on Saturday the 19th of May 2018. Due to the work load required for the 19th of May we will not have two live broadcasts for May.

Do TUNE IN for our LIVE birthday celebration broadcast from 09:00 – 15:00 and thereafter pre-recorded shows continuing with the theme from 15:00 – 21:00 .

RX Radio would like to thank each and every listener for the continuous and passionate support.

The beginning stages of RX Radio: here our mixing desk was being installed.RX Radio Young Reporter, Alaweyah, preparing to go on air.RX Radio Reporters and TV personality Dr. Michael Mol at our first LIVE brodcast

Concerts in the park (#CITP18) is an initiative where music concerts are held in De Waal Park and it’s free for the public to attend. This came about as one of our reporters, Amirah, who is the host of a music show The Hot Playlist was keen on going to watch the musical acts perform live!

On the 4th of March she attended the Concerts in the Park and along with enjoying amazing performances by The Skyscrapers, The Rudimentals and Freshlyground, she also had the opportunity of interviewing the lead singer from The Skyscrapers – Mila and the rapper of The Rudimentals – Whosane Pangaea.

This was an exciting and invaluable experience, we’re looking forward to cover more of the #CITP18 shows.

Amirah posing with the Freshlyground lead singer, Zolani MaholaThe Skyscrapers in action on stage performing their hit ‘We’re just kids’Amirah chatting with the Skyscrapers leading lady, Mila

On 10 and 24 March, a few RX Radio reporters took part in workshops facilitated by the Children’s Institute. The Children’s Institute aims to contribute to policies, laws and interventions that promote equality, realise the rights, and improve the conditions of all children in South Africa.

Lori Lake, a researcher at the Children’s Institute, and the RX Radio reporters going though the Child Gauge 2018

Every year, the Children’s Institute produces a book called the South African Child Gauge which aims to improve the lives of children in South Africa. The book brings together researchers from around the country to identify the latest facts and figures and it uses this information to help government design better laws, policies and programmes for children.

This year, they are looking at the Sustainable Development Goals – and what they need to do in South Africa to make sure that children not only survive, but also reach their full potential. The two workshops were held to produce a child-friendly summary of the Child Gauge with the help of RX Radio reporters.

On Saturday the 3rd of February, a certificate ceremony was held for the newly trained RX Radio Child and Young Reporters. The nine children, and their family and friends, were invited to the ceremony to listen to the radio diaries that they produced during their training in December 2017. The event is to celebrate the children’s achievements at and for them to receive a certificate for completing their training.

RX Radio basic training takes place four times a year and in every training, aspiring Child and Young Reporters are expected to produce one radio diary by the end of the course. Much like a regular diary entry, radio diaries are personal stories that are told by the children about any topic that they would like to talk about. The story is told from the child’s own perspective and includes one or two interviews with people they know.

From the 11th to the 15th of December last year, nine children of varying ages (4 to 14 years old) took part in the RX Radio basic training. To create their radio diaries, the children learnt about the basics of radio – namely: using a recorder, talking on radio, and developing interviewing skills. The end result was a radio diary of about 4-6 minutes long that were played during the ceremony.

This month’s event was enjoyed by all the children and their families where they could watch each other’s radio diaries and join in with eating cake and receiving their certificates. At the end of the day, most of the children are interested in continuing with RX Radio and some have expressed an interest in creating their own shows. So stay tuned and listen out for the brand new RX Radio Child and Young Reporters.

Keeping your voice fit is an important part of radio. In order to sound clear, confident, and credible, radio presenters need to keep exercising their vocal chords. This is because how you sound on radio can be just as important as what you say. Therefore, as part of their ongoing training, RX Radio’s Child and Young Reporters joined The Voice Gym for the second time.

Helping us keep our voices fit and sounding great was Marianthi Dickie from VoiceWorks. For another two-day workshop (9th and 10th of January 2018), Marianthi taught us a number of different exercises for training our voices and keeping them ready for radio.

On the first day, we all learnt about what makes an effective radio voice. We learnt about pitch, pace, volume, and tone – all of which play an important role in making radio presenters sound captivating and interesting. With lots of deep breathing and belly laughing, we also discovered that relaxing your muscles and breathing correctly can improve your tone of voice and prevent you from running out of air when you’re talking. We then wrapped up the session practicing some tricky tongue twisters to prepare us for the next day.

On day two, Marianthi took us through some more tricky tongue twisters and other vocal exercises before teaching us about the importance of using varied speech patterns. In order for presenters to not sound boring on the radio, they must practice a more varied flow of speech by changing their pitch, adjusting their pace, and making use of pauses. To practice this, all the RX Radio Child and Young Reporters read aloud a news piece and a script – focusing on the lessons they learnt and emphasising different words and phrases.

Our two days at The Voice Gym helped many of the children at RX Radio further develop their voices and taught them many different exercises that they can try out at home. We’re sure that at the next live broadcast, each and every one of us will be practicing our breathing and going through the different vocal exercises.

RX Radio has partnered with Stellenbosch University and they are conducting research about the station. Here is their request to you RX Radio listeners:

“We at Stellenbosch University would like to know more about RX Radio, Red Cross Children’s Hospital Radio Station and what it means to you. If you are a listener (whether an adult or child) or have been involved in any way we would love to interview you. If you are interested you can phone Jackie on 082 414 2145 or email jackiest@sun.ac.za.”

After a great festive season, RX Radio is back on the airwaves! Last Saturday, the 13th of January, we had our first live broadcast of 2018 – with plenty of great shows and entertaining guests.

Dr Sindiwe Magona poses with RX Radio Young Reporters on the first live broadcast for 2018. Dr Magona spoke with the kids to find out what stories they want to hear.

Starting our hectic line-up was the Top 20 with Alex – as he counted down the top tracks of January 2018. On his show, he also hosted Dr Sindiwe Magona – an acclaimed writer, creative coach and all round life-teacher – and KFM presenters (and Alex’s personal heroes), Ryan O’Connor and Sechaba G.

Sechaba G and Ryan O’Connor chat to Alex about what it’s like being in radio

We then had a great interview with Professor Njabulo Ndebele, Chairperson of Nelson Mandela Foundation, that was conducted by our own RX Radio Young Reporter Athule on Tackling the Outdoors with Hakeem. This was followed up by an important discussion about sun protection with Naasiha Dada – Social Auxiliary Worker and Community Mobiliser at CANSA Cape Metro.

This week, Qaqamba’s Inspiration Corner was hosted by Young RX Reporter Talitha where she talked about the anxiety of starting a new school grade. She also interviewed Melissa Platt, co-founder of Footprints4Sam.

On Amirah’s Hot Playlist, presenter Amirah talked about World Braille Day with Vincent Daniels, the Public Awareness Officer from the Cape Town Society for the Blind. She then had a lively interview with the musical duo Alter Ego.

Rounding up the first live broadcast of 2018, we had Zaarha’s Kitchen – your favourite show about the culinary world. On this show, Talitha interviewed Ramabina Mahapa, former RX Radio Project Officer, about his experience with our radio station. Zaarha also got to chat to 9 and 7 year-old Mini Chefs from The Table Bay Sun International, Madison and Isabella Henry. Finally, Talitha spoke with the Madison and Isabella’s chef mentor, Daren Everts.

Mini Chefs Madison and Isabelle Henry made us a lovely gingerbread house to share!

Our first live broadcast day of 2018 was clearly a busy one with so many guests, kids, and presenters coming in to chat and jive to some music. It looks like this is a great sign for things to come as we make 2018 our best year yet! So stay tuned…

Three RX Radio Reporters attended the launch of the South African Child Gauge 2017.

The SA Child Gauge gives a look into the status of South Africa’s children, annually.

It’s published by the Children’s Institute, University of Cape Town, with the aim to track South Africa’s progress towards realizing children’s rights.

The theme for this year was Investing in children for sustainable development – Survive. Thrive. Transform.

The RX Radio Reporters had the opportunity to speak with Lucy Jamieson the Senior Researcher for the Children’s Institute, Benyam Dawit Mezmur the Chairperson of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, Christina Nomdo from the National Planning Commission of South Africa and many more!

Here are pictures of the RX Radio Reporters in action:

RX Radio Reporter Amirah and Lucy Jamieson the Senior Researcher for the Children’s Institute

RX Radio Reporter, Thameenah, interviewing Christina Nomdo from the National Planning Commission of South Africa

Embrace Cape Town hosted the Kids @ The Centre event for the second time, on Saturday 18 November 2017.

The Kids @ The Centre event served as a creative way to celebrate Cape Town’s children for Universal Children’s Day, and to use this as an opportunity to talk about joining efforts to make Cape Town a City for Children.

On the day of the event thousands of families from all over Cape Town gathered in the Company Gardens to enjoy a day of art, acrobats, theatre, hula hoops, LEGO… and so much fun!

RX Radio was honoured to be one of the organizations that partnered with Kids @ The Centre to celebrate the children of Cape Town.

RX Radio had an outside broadcast of 2 hours at the Company Gardens and had roving reporters interviewing parents, children and participating organizations about how the day was.

Below are some pictures taken at the event:

RX Radio Reporter Qaqamba interviewing a Nal’ibali member at their activation.

Our hosts for the second hour, Hakeem & Alaweyah interviewing Cape Town Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security JP Smith.

Alaweyah & Hakeem, the hosts if our second of broadcasting, talking to children who are sharing their experience at Kids @ The Centre.

The hosts of our first hour of broadcasting, Alex & Talitha getting ready for the broadcast.

RX Radio finally has an App for Android and iOS users that’s easy to download and user friendly. You can stream live from the App, listen to previous shows, check out radio diaries, see all our social media posts, send birthday messages, request songs, answer quizzes and you get a notification when we’re about to broadcast a show.

Here’s how you get the app:

Android: Go to the Google Play Store. Then search ‘RX Radio’, click on RX Radio and download the App. Alternatively click here.

iOS: Go to the App Store and search ‘RX Radio’. Then download or alternatively click here.